Award Flexibilities

During the pandemic the Award introduced exemptions to ensure participants could continue to use the framework effectively.  These changes were found to not only support rangatahi through the pandemic, but also enabled even more young people to access and experience the benefits of the Award generally.  As a result, these 'Temporary Changes' have now been incorporated into the international Award permanently, as Award Flexibilities.

These Award Flexibilities are only for use in exceptional circumstances, where they can enable young people to participate in the Award, where it may have been difficult to do so otherwise.

They are only to be applied at the discretion of the Award Leader, with sign off from National Office. Please email [email protected]
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Voluntary Service

  1. Participants can volunteer from home as part of their Award
  2. Participants can volunteer for family members
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Gold Residential Project

  1. Participants may go home to sleep at night
  2. Participants may complete some or all of the Gold Residential Project virtually as long as the criteria is met:
    • You must be registered for Gold
    • The project needs to be a minimum of five days and four nights
    • You need to be involved in 8 hours of purposeful activity each day
    • You are interacting with people you don’t already know
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Adventurous Journeys

  1. Award Leaders can waive the requirement for a Practice Journey, provided the participant is not a direct entrant. For Silver and Gold, the participant must have completed the previous level.  The Award Leader must be confident that the participant is able to do a Qualifying Journey safely and competently.
  2. Participants can use a home or school gym as accommodation.

Extreme Weather Exemptions – February 2023

The following Award exemptions have been prepared in response to the extreme weather events Aotearoa has been experiencing and are for use by affected Award Units.
Please note that if participants can carry out components of their Award without exemptions, then they should do so. The exemptions only apply where this isn’t possible. They are applied at the Award Leader’s discretion.
Schools in affected areas who would have normally registered participants during this time can register participants at any point during Term 1 and back date the participant’s start date to 1st February 2023. This ensures that any activities completed during this time can count towards their Award.
Participants in affected areas can volunteer for family members as part of their Award activities and family members can be their assessors for these activities, if needed. This enables our rangatahi who have been supporting their whānau and community to have their hard work recognised on their Award journey. Please note: If for any reason an activity is no longer able to be completed, then remind your participants they can choose another activity. Participants must set these up as a new activity under the appropriate section/s. Instructions can be found on page 2 -3 of this document.
We know that some Award units will find it difficult to undertake an Adventurous Journey Expedition at present. Here are some guidelines to help you if this is a challenge:
  1. Award Leaders can waive the requirement for a Practice Journey, provided the participant is not a direct entrant. For Silver and Gold, the participant must have completed the previous level.  Prior consent is required from the Award Leader.  The Award Leader must be confident that the participant is able to do a Qualifying Journey safely and competently. Please email Jessica with names of participants and Award level and she will apply the adaptation [email protected]
  2. Adventurous journeys may be organised in a familiar environment
  3. Participants can use a home or school gym as accommodation during Adventurous Journeys
Please be aware that some Adventurous Journey Providers, under their safety management system, are not able to accept exemptions. Please talk to them before booking any trips.  Please ensure you follow your organisation’s safety protocol at all times. If tracks are closed and you cannot complete an Expedition, you may wish to consider an Exploration instead.
  1. Participants may go home to sleep at night
  2. Participants may complete some or all the Residential Project virtually as long as the criteria is met:
  3. The Residential can take place over two weekends when a similar activity is undertaken and as long as both weekends occur within 1 year of each other.